ReleaseWire Connect

Investing in environmental, social and governance (ESG) targeted opportunities is increasingly becoming a theme in the private equity world. Singapore's Azalea, a private equity manager based in the city-state, is one of the latest to move some of its considerable expertise in this area. It comes via the launch of the Altrium Sustainability Fund, which will be investing in ESG opportunities in order to balance both private equity returns as well as positive environmental and social outcomes. It is a fund-of-funds product, which means that it can be used by institutional and other accredited investors to create an investment portfolio that delivers on the sustainability front. Azalea is the fund sponsor and also the co-seed. Aviva and financial services company Singlife have also stepped up to help establish the new sustainability fund. Each one is contributing $50 million in order to get the fund up and running and to help it start delivering on the idea of private equity as a force for good.

Singapore continues to prove its position as a vital centre for fintech in the APAC region, attracting a wealth of investment and incubating some exciting enterprises. Aquariux, which is based in Singapore is one of those enterprises, a fintech start-up that has recently announced an opportunity for significant growth. The start-up revealed in April that it has raised US$2.2 million in pre-seed money from private investors, capital that the company plans to use to expand its workforce beyond the current team of 30 employees. Aquariux was established back in October 2020 and its business is focused on tech solutions in payments and trading, among other areas. It also provides a range of other services, including blockchain integration. In addition to the investment capital, the start-up also announced Kelvin Chia as its CEO. Chia brings more than a decade of building business strategy, subscription revenue, and B2B customer ecosystems that will be vital to Aquariux as the business develops.

The Singapore-based financial technology platform Cake DeFi has launched a venture capital arm that is going to be pouring funds into start-ups in areas such as Web3 and gaming. The new arm already has an initial $100 million in funds and picked its first investment target - the start-up The Edge of Company. The objective of launching the new arm of the business is to raise the profile of blockchain and cryptocurrency and make these more accessible worldwide. Given that Cake DeFi is one of the most impressive fintech platforms in the region when it comes to growth this is clearly a huge opportunity for any of the start-ups that the business chooses to work with. Support is likely to be global, especially when it comes to international scaling. The new VC arm of Cake is especially keen to invest in start-ups that are focused on NFTs, blockchain and the metaverse.

2021 was a record year for financial technology in Singapore with 191 deals transacted, an increase of almost 40% on the year before. The figures represent a 91% increase on the numbers for 2019, showing just how much the market has surged, despite the impact of the pandemic.

Headcount is rising across the market in Hong Kong as China's private equity firms look to leverage new talent following the slump in private equity and mergers and acquisitions activity. This drop in fourth quarter activity in 2021 was triggered by a number of factors, from COVID rules to market dislocation and government clampdown on fast-growth industries.

Singapore is not just a global gateway for investment managers but also an important fundraising portal, which has made it a go-to city for private equity managers from all over the world. Variable Capital Companies (VCC) - a new corporate entity structure - is considered to be something of a game-changer for the investment industry, providing a wealth of options when it comes to flexibility and cost savings.

As a financial technology recruiter, it has been difficult not to notice the boom that has taken place in the Australian fintech sector in recent years. In H1 2021 it was estimated that the sector hit US$890 million, a figure that represents a 60% increase on the same period in the year before. Capital is now pouring into the Australian market and this is giving organisations significant resources for expansion. And when it comes to expansion, Singapore is being targeted as one of the top markets for growth by businesses in the Australian fintech sector.

Figures from the end of last year show record financial technology funding in South East Asia during 2021. Funding levels spiked more than three times in the first nine months of the year, reaching $3.5 billion, which is a record amount. About $2 billion of this can be attributed to 13 mega rounds i.e. those rounds that raise upwards of $100 million.

Sustainable finance used to be an area of expertise that fell pretty far down the scale in terms of remuneration. However, today given the huge shift towards more environmentally-focused economies, specialists in this field are now able to command significant sums. Recent figures show that firms today are willing to considerably increase what they are willing to pay those with expertise in this area, which has meant many private equity executives have seen a rise in pay up to seven figures.

According to recent data from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, strong gains made by private equity funds have made a significant contribution to a 17% rise in assets managed in Singapore over the past year. In 2020 the value of assets under management in Singapore rose to S$4.7 trillion.